Fan Killed By Lighting At NASCAR Race

Today was supposed to be a fun day, especially if you are a Jeff Gordon fan.  Gordon won the race, but after the race was called, lighting struck at the track and killed 1 person and injured about 9 others.
From ESPN: One fan was killed and nine others were injured as a result of lightning strikes following Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway.
Track officials said the name or gender of the fan killed could not be released until family members were notified. They said the fan was pronounced dead on arrival at Pocono Mountain Medical Center in Stroudsburg.
One other fan is in critical condition at Lehigh Hospital in Allentown. The other eight are being treated and evaluated for minor injuries at local hospitals.
Track spokesman Bob Pleban said nine fans, including the fatality, were injured from a strike that occurred in a parking lot behind the main grandstand shortly before 5 p.m. The other came from a strike near Gate 3 between Turns 1 and 2.
The strikes came right after the scheduled 160-lap race was called for rain on Lap 98. Race winner Jeff Gordon was on his way to Victory Lane when the strike behind the grandstand occurred.
"We were walking down pit road, the umbrellas weren't doing any good,'' Gordon said. "There was a huge, huge crack from lightning. You could tell it was very close.''
Gordon, not aware of the fatality, said the incident dampened a win that ended his 31-race losing streak and put him in position for one of two wild-card spots.
"I mean, the fans here are so loyal and avid," Gordon said. "When we were going back to the garage area, there was a group of fans chanting up there that were not leaving.
"That's just so unfortunate because they're so loyal and avid here, so you hate to hear something like that. Certainly our thoughts are with them. I hope everything is OK."  http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/8237643/one-dead-nine-others-injured-lightning-strikes-following-nascar-race-pocono
Here in Las Vegas, we have the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is located in the far Northeast part of the Valley, across from Nellis AFB.
We don't get a lot of thunderstorms, but we do get some.  Last year, the 2012 NASCAR weekend was marred by rain, so it is possible to get thunderstorms in the area.
At the NASCAR race, we get about 100,000 people in the LVMS including fans, staff, crews, safety and vendors.  If a severe thunderstorm hit, there would not be enough room under the bleachers for everyone in the stands, so if lighting did strike, we would be in the same situation as Pocono, and it is possible some people would get hurt.
However, in Pocono, they had plenty of warnings that a bad storm would be coming and the TV people even doubted that the race would run the entire way.  So should they have postponed the race until after the storms hit and run the race on Monday?  If that happened, it would have caused a lot of problems, both with the teams and fans.  And if they were wrong, the speedway officials would have cost NASCAR, fans, speedway, vendors, media etc millions of dollars.
But other outdoor sports like football and baseball wait until the rain, thunder and lighting hits before they postpone or cancel a a game, so Pocono didn't do anything out of the ordinary.
So, what could have done differently by the Speedway?  Obviously, you cannot do much if a fan goes out to the parking and then gets zapped.  However, if the fans are standing by metal fences, you need to have security tell them to get away from the fences.
This was a terrible tragedy, probably not preventable unless they took drastic action well before the race was won.  RIP to the fan that died and hopefully everyone else who was hurt, will recover without any permanent injuries.